An Army Staff Sergeant was charged with multiple charges and specifications of unlawfully video recording fellow Soldiers using the bathroom in latrines while deployed to Iraq and in Garrison at Fort Hood. The Sergeant was placed in pre-trial confinement pending a general court martial in which the government was seeking a pre-trial agreement that would require him to spend multiple years in prison.
After being retained, a military defense attorney, Tim Bilecki, flew to Fort Hood, Texas, to interview witnesses, discuss the case prosecutors and conduct the Article 32 hearing. During that trip, Mr. Bilecki was able to negotiate a plea agreement that would conditionally waive Article 32 (meaning that should the proposed plea agreement not be approved, the defense would still have the right to conduct the Article 32 preliminary hearing) and would greatly limit our client’s confinement exposure. That trip was incredibly successful, and the negotiated plea deal was accepted.
A sentencing hearing was set, and Mr. Bilecki traveled back to Fort Hood, Texas, and put on an extensive extenuation and mitigation case in front of the military judge, asking for a sentence of time served plus 30 days. After reviewing the sentencing evidence and hearing arguments by both the government and the defense, the military judge sentenced our client to exactly what was requested by the defense. This allowed our client to get out of prison, go home and start working again for his prior civilian employer in less than a month.
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